West Wind Education Policy and the Bijou Cinema will screen a documentary American Teacher by the Teacher Salary Project at the Bijou Cinema, the University of Iowa's student-operated independent movie house in the Iowa Memorial Union.

The screening will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 3, and will be followed by a panel discussion including teachers-in-training at the UI College of Education. Associate Professor Renita R. Schmidt, Coy Marquardt from the Iowa State Education Association, and Valerie Nyberg, an education policy analyst from West Wind who is also a doctoral candidate at the UI College of Education, will also be part of the panel discussion. The film and panel discussion are both free and open to the public.

The film was produced by Dave Eggers, the author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers. He wrote the latter with Ninive Clement Calegari, who founded the Teacher Salary Project and also produced the documentary with Eggers. American Teacher is narrated by Matt Damon and includes interviews with several students, teachers, administrators, and education leaders. The film has been screened in New York, Los Angeles, and other venues, and the creators say they are happy to bring it to Iowa City for discussion as well.

The film run time is 81 minutes. For more information or special accommodations to attend, contact the UI Center for Student Involvement and Leadership in advance at 319-335-3059.